15 July 2004 Edition

The Bible and the Crown

On my television screen, lines of mostly men in dark suits, bowler hats and
Orange collarettes march in formation to the tunes of pseudo-military bands.
Banners declare their district, their faith and their political allegiances.
The mottos embroidered on their banners and flags reiterate a notion of
themselves as the "chosen", the "finest" and the "true".

In the watching crowds, parents hold children aloft, kids lick ice cream and
the inevitable granny sports a Union Jack hat. Here, fundamentalist
Protestant notions of the elect seamlessly meet political notions of
unionist supremacism. During this annual militaristic ritual, anti-Catholic
and anti-Irish hostility is expressed as carnival. The Bible and the crown
march to the fife and drum.

And what's more scary? The unionist paramilitary flags and paramilitary mock
British Army uniforms worn by some of the bands and colour parties? Or the
normalisation of such provocative parading? The ice cream treats and a day
out for the family. For the BBC commentator it's all colour and spectacle;
the English have their summer flower shows and Wimbledon tennis, and in the
north of Ireland we have the Twelfth.

Of course, on the Eleventh Night the rituals are more blatantly brutish. The
masked unionist paramilitaries, the gunfire show of strength by sectarian
killers, the spectator mob, the bonfire and the ritual burning of Catholic
effigies and portraits of nationalist politicians.

This year, some Belfast bonfires took to burning images of Sinn Féin's
Bairbre de Brún, already dubbed by Ian Paisley's DUP, Barbara de Broomstick.
For any thinking person, this surely must send a shiver down the spine. So
now we can add to the ritualistic burning effigies of women as witches to
the Celtic jersey-clad versions of Guy Fawkes, another unfortunate Catholic
whose demise at the hands of a London mob set the bonfire fashion of revenge.

This year, the Eleventh fell on a Sunday and there was some discussion
amongst the faithful about the significance. In a nutshell, is the burning
of Catholic effigies on the Sabbath breaking the Christian work to rule? The
doubters were reassured by the realisation that the bonfires would be lit
after midnight and therefore not on Sunday. What a relief.

Anywhere else in the world, if a gang decided to dump a mountain of domestic
waste in close proximity to housing and then set it alight in the middle of
the night it would be seen as a public disgrace. Here, it passes as cultural
expression (don't ask, I don't know why).

This year, we were encouraged by the BBC to believe that the fact that the
Fire Service was only called out to 55 Eleventh night bonfires that were
threatening to engulf nearby property made it all acceptable.

In the run up to the event, as the gathering debris despoiled more areas,
there was even some discussion into what might be considered an
environmentally friendly Eleventh night bonfire. Come off it, no one's that
gullible.

Now, tear yourself away from those tv images of festival and sunshine and
all that cheerful looking orange and imagine a gathering of White
Supremicists spending the night burning effigies of other racial groups,
firing off illegal weaponry and fêting racist killers as local heroes.

Then imagine them a few hours later, dressed in their Sunday best suits and
marching proudly through your city, town or village in the name of religion,
civic pride and culture. Well, it's not what you would call a tourist
attraction. Indeed, it's not very attractive at all.

Intimidation is a curious thing, because where it works well, there isn't
any call for actual violence. The Orange Order has a long history in the use
of anti-Catholic and anti-Irish intimidation.

As Brian Feeney pointed out in the Sunday Business Post, Orange marchers
provoked Belfast's first sectarian riot on 12 July 1813, when they tried to
force themselves down Hercules Lane, a narrow street of mainly
Catholic-owned shops (the people of the Falls successfully defended the
area).

Indeed, since the establishment of the Orange Order, it has been associated
with sectarian anti-Catholic violence and to this very day the Orange
marching season is accompanied by heightened sectarian tension and increased
attacks on Catholics.

Any good Orangeman will tell of days gone by when Catholics watched the
parades as well as Protestants, except very few Catholics remember things
quite in this way. True, some were forced to witness anti-Catholic marches
by Orangemen parading through their districts, being at the time too few and
too afraid to object, but that's not the same as enjoying the view.

So, when the BBC commentator described this year's Twelfth as "passing off
peacefully" or relatively peacefully, apart from Ardoyne, remember an Orange
parade might pass off without incident but that's nothing to do with
peaceful. Peace requires embracing difference, not securing segregation
through sectarian